Artificial Intelligence – Hype or a reliable trend?
AI is currently on everyone’s lips. At major IT fairs, such as CES, CEBIT, and Mobile World Congress, manufacturers are introducing one technology solution after another that include Artificial Intelligence. The idea of intelligent machines is not a new one, though. Ever since the 1950s, research has worked on technologies that simulate human thinking and facilitate machine learning.
In the beginning, the scientists asked themselves the central question of how a person learns and understands things. Then, these processes were transferred to machines. An example that illustrates this objective well is a computer that is capable of developing its own game strategy. The greatest chess and go masters in the world are beaten by AI today – the dominance of the machines is impressive.
Until the 2000s, sophisticated AI-related technologies were developed that are successfully used in a wide range of industrial and medical applications. But for the masses, these milestones remained largely unknown. Why did AI become so interesting in recent years? On the one hand, the computing power and storage capacity of our computers and electronic devices have steadily increased and are now available at low cost. On the other hand, due to the rapid digitization of our society and the resulting use of smartphones, tablets & co. an ever greater amount of data is available – a perfect basis for the use of AI. Thanks to a comprehensive data analysis that only a high-performance computer is capable of, we will soon see autonomous cars on our roads, machines will carry out our daily scheduling, and we will seek advice from chatbots in the services sector. Furthermore, processes will emerge where human intelligence is no longer needed; problem solving will be done from machine to machine (M2M).
To answer the question from the beginning: Yes, artificial intelligence is here to stay. It will continue to gain importance in the coming years and will have a permanent place in our society.
Interplay of AI and IoT
While AI is enthusiastically accepted by the market, the definition “Internet of Things” still remains vague for many people. However, IoT will greatly benefit from the triumph of artificial intelligence. After all, data plays an important role in the networking of products. Manufacturers have to collect and analyze user data in order to understand how their networked products are used and where there is still a need for optimization. The better the data analysis works, the more well-developed the IoT devices will be, which in turn will increase market acceptance. Only with the help of AI, truly smart IoT products can be developed with added value for the user.
Practical example: Networked vehicles
There are many practical examples of how KI makes IoT products smart. Some time ago, I introduced the cooperation between TeamViewer and HP, which relies on networked vehicles. Without the use of artificial intelligence, users would not be able to fully benefit from these vehicles. The data collection and analysis is not limited to the technical characteristics of the vehicle and the machine learned user behavior, but also data on traffic conditions, speed limits, or weather conditions are included. Here, IoT and KI go hand in hand to create an optimal driving experience.
